“LET ME PUT ICE ON it, please,” Liam asks for the tenth time since we pulled up at my house.
I look over at him with a smile, the same smile that hasn’t left since my first hit during the paintball game. Not even when one of the last blue players got me right in the back of my thigh and the burning pain caused me to face plant in the middle of the field. Of course, the pain was easily forgotten when I watched Liam stop and turn sharply and pelt the guy with one try before he dropped down to make sure I was okay.
That smile was shining bright when I watched Liam hand his phone over to the owner, grab me by my middle and position me in front of him. It was still shining huge when his phone came up, flash went off, and I know that had I looked when Liam did, I would see one big wonky smile on my face in that picture.
If the look on his face was any indication, he liked seeing that big wonky smile. He liked it a lot.
I still haven’t come down from my high. I look up, smiling at him and shake my head.
“It’s going to hurt more if we don’t put ice on it.”
“I feel fine,” I tell him and honestly I am. It’s sore, but it doesn’t hurt. Well, it doesn’t hurt that much.
He looks up from where he’s been studying my thigh and gives me a long accessing look.
“What?” I ask him.
“Nothing, darlin’, nothing at all.”
He doesn’t take his gaze from mine. I look down at where he’s kneeling against the floor and just drink him in. Today has been the most fun that I’ve had in a long time. All because of Liam.
“You feel it yet?” he asks after a few minutes.
“Huh?”
He opens his mouth to respond but snaps it shut when the front door opens and I hear my precious daughter laughing at the top of her lungs.
“Mommy! I got to ride in a monster truck!”
My eyes widen and I look at Liam in shock. I had called Dani earlier when it became apparent that my kidnapper wasn’t going to give up, and asked her if she could get Molly from school. I know Dani doesn’t own a monster truck. The thought of my daughter in a monster truck scares the crap out of me.
“Breathe,” Liam says softly.
“Right.” I take a deep breath and nod my head, looking deep into his eyes.
Molly rounds the corner that separates the front hall and the living room, her infectious smile causing me to give her one of my own. When Nate comes into the room, my smile slips slightly.
“You aren’t Dani,” I tell him.
“Nope. I’m prettier. Right, Mols?”
She giggles and gives him a hug. “Yup! Hi, Lee! Mommy, look, Lee’s here!” She turns from where Nate is standing and bounces toward Liam. I hold my breath and wait to see what she’ll do next. It seems, if her leaping into his lap is any indication, that my girl is getting attached to all of these men in her life.
I ignore the slight pain in my chest when Jack’s face crosses my mind and will myself to not think about the things that he’s missing in her life.
“Hey, little lady.”
I look away when I see the look of reverence in her eyes. Yeah, my girl sure is hooked.
“Where is Dani?” I ask Nate, avoiding the look on Liam’s face as he gazes at my precious daughter.
“She’s in time out,” Nate tells me, ignoring my shocked face and dropping down to hold his arms out. “What? I’m prettier than that troll, Mols! Has my beauty let you down?” He throws his hand over his forehead and drops to the ground in a dramatic faint.
Molly claps her little hands and giggles at Nate’s antics. I swear, this girl.
I look over when Liam laughs and scoops Molly up in his arms.
“Be gone you ugly ogre! Princess Molly has no time for the likes of you!”
My eyes widen and I watch in fascination as the two huge alpha males play with Molly effortlessly. Of course my daughter is eating up every second of this. I sit there, watching and in the middle of her beautiful laughter I feel like the walls are closing in on me. Not in a bad way, necessarily, but it hits me that this is something that I’ve been keeping from her. By closing myself off and making it so nothing and no one can come close enough to form bonds that can break, I’ve also kept Molly locked up.
I’ve kept my innocent daughter from experiencing relationships of others. Sure, I can justify it away that I’m keeping her from the pain if we were to lose someone else, but what is that teaching her?
My God, I’m teaching her fear.
Fear for the unknown and that fear will keep her from having the beautiful life that I so wish she will have.